Why visibility is key: Victoria Webb on the power of networking

Victoria Webb recognised her natural talent to stay ‘super organised’ and made a constant effort in networking to craft a career in the events industry.

Now, the head of event sales at Millennium Point talks about how she overcame challenges through building confidence and having a strong support system.

What inspired your career or business journey?

My passion for events started at a young age. One of my earliest memories is from when I was nine, helping as a waitress during a Sunday lunch at a local hotel.

Even then, I loved being part of creating a great experience for others.

As a teenager, I stayed in a hotel in Edinburgh that was buzzing with different events and weddings.

I was fascinated by the energy, the organisation, and the way everything came together to create something special.

That experience confirmed my love for the industry.

I thrive on bringing someone’s vision to life, meeting different people, and with my natural ability to stay super organised, event sales is the perfect fit for me.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a woman in business and how did you overcome it?

Personally, my biggest challenge was gaining visibility and having the confidence to believe in myself.

However, throughout my career I have focused on building on my confidence in my work and expertise.

I have learnt from fantastic mentors along the way who provided guidance, support, and I continuously worked on expanding my skills and knowledge.

Additionally, I made a conscious effort to network and build relationships within my industry, which in returned helped me gain visibility and credibility.

What’s one key piece of advice for women looking to succeed in your industry?

Events and hospitality is a people industry so my advice for women (or anyone!) looking to succeed in my industry is to network, network, network!

Building strong industry contacts can open doors to new opportunities, provide valuable insights and above all offer a support network that can help during challenges.

Attend your local industry expo’s, talk to like-minded individuals and organisations, grow your knowledge how to best support your industry. You might even make some great friends along the way.

How has gender equality in business changed and what still needs to improve?

I have seen fantastic changes in gender quality in business, from how companies help new parents to return to work, to better opportunities for careers.

Although there is a long way to go, full changes don’t happen overnight and to see we’re going in the right direction is a success within itself.

There are things that still need to improve, areas such as unconscious bias and stereotyping needs to be addressed.

By reviewing and promoting changes within how organisations develop their work culture and how they can spot these situations would help equality further grow for the future.

How has being part of GBCC supported your business or career?

GBCC is like being in a huge supportive community, personally it has given me further networking opportunities that have promoted growth within my own career.

From a business perspective, knowing there is a network of like-minded organisations all after the same goal of continuing to make Birmingham great is also inspiring to be a part of.

This year’s IWD theme is Accelerate Action. Given that gender parity may take until 2158 what does IWD mean to you, and how can we drive faster change?

To me, Accelerate Action means what can we all do to achieve equality faster than 2158.

On a wider scale, although equality is the end goal, it is all about the little changes we can all make today and every other day that matters most.

Looking at how we can support the next generation, whether that is being mentors, or giving them opportunities we may not have had when starting out.

Creating a strong culture not just in our work lives but personal as well.

By helping those that may not have had that help we can build confidence and give them the visibility to achieve great things.

By working together, I truly believe we can achieve anything and acceleration action.